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On September 22, the Australian Treasury released the latest edition of the Intergenerational Report, which outlines a 40-year economic outlook and lists artificial intelligence as one of the five major transformations that will profoundly impact the economy in the future, but the report does not mention cryptocurrencies. The report states that AI systems have become "significantly" more autonomous, powerful, and widely applied, with some benchmark performances surpassing human levels. The other four transformations are geopolitical conflicts, an aging population, the transition to clean energy, and Australia's industrial shift towards the service sector.John O'Loghlen, National Director of Coinbase Australia, commented in an email that the report clearly indicates that Australia's prosperity over the next 40 years will largely depend on the ability to adopt new technologies and enhance productivity, but while the report focuses on artificial intelligence, it completely overlooks the financial infrastructure required for these agents. Previous Intergenerational Reports also did not address digital assets. Despite these omissions, the Reserve Bank of Australia has increased its focus on tokenized finance and upgrading financial infrastructure earlier this year, with the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre estimating that digital financial innovation could bring an economic benefit of AUD 24 billion (approximately USD 17.1 billion) annually.The Treasury also released a separate report on September 3 titled Financial Innovation Strategy, which discusses the connection between AI and financial infrastructure, stating that agent systems may increase automation and machine-to-machine trading, thereby creating greater demand for real-time, interoperable, and programmable payment systems.

Animoca Brands and the Nasdaq-listed company Currenc Group have suspended the previously proposed reverse merger negotiations, which were originally intended to facilitate Animoca's listing. In a statement released on Tuesday, Animoca indicated that after assessing the project timeline and the "evolving market environment," both parties agreed that the time required to complete the transaction no longer aligned with their short-term and mid-term goals.Animoca co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu stated, "Corporate agility must take precedence over" advancing the merger with Currenc. Animoca added that the company "remains fully committed to relisting on a major public exchange," and if conditions permit, both parties may consider resuming merger negotiations. The reverse merger plan was first announced in November 2025, originally intended for Currenc to acquire Animoca through an Australian arrangement, with Animoca shareholders collectively holding 95% of the merged company's shares post-merger.Animoca was previously listed on the Australian Securities Exchange but was delisted in 2020 due to scrutiny over its involvement in crypto-related activities. In 2022, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission convicted Animoca and imposed a fine for failing to submit annual reports for 2019-2021 and some semi-annual reports. Animoca stated that it is actively advancing the preparation of its audited financial statements for the fiscal year 2024 and continues to seek the optimal path for relisting. Currenc Group is a fintech company headquartered in Singapore, focusing on AI and tokenization solutions.

According to Alternative data, the Crypto Fear and Greed Index has risen to 78, reaching its highest value in nearly a month, up from 70 yesterday, with an average of 66 last month. Market sentiment has returned to the extreme greed zone.Note: The Fear Index threshold is 0-100, including indicators: Volatility (25%) + Market Trading Volume (25%) + Social Media Heat (15%) + Market Surveys (15%) + Bitcoin's Proportion in the Overall Market (10%) + Google Trends Analysis (10%).

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Iris Rabaya Au, a 37-year-old woman from Irvine, Orange County, California, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for failing to report over $2.6 million in illegal income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). She was also ordered to pay $1.484 million in restitution and had multiple luxury cars, high-performance vehicles, designer handbags, and three "Godfather" sculptures confiscated. Au is the ex-girlfriend of cryptocurrency scammer Adam Iza.Prosecutors stated that between 2020 and 2024, Iza fraudulently obtained Meta advertising accounts and credit lines, selling account access and earning millions of dollars in unreported income. At Iza's direction, Au set up shell companies and opened bank accounts, using the related funds to pay approximately $1 million to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) officers and to purchase or lease luxury homes, cars, jewelry, and clothing. They also spent nearly $10 million on entertainment and purchased about $16 million in cryptocurrency for Iza. Between 2020 and 2023, Au transferred over $2.6 million into her personal bank accounts but did not accurately report it on her federal tax returns. She pleaded guilty to one count of false tax return in March 2025. Iza pleaded guilty in January 2025 to charges including conspiracy to infringe rights, wire fraud, and tax evasion, with a sentencing hearing scheduled for October 5. He was also sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for his involvement in an attempted Bitcoin robbery and kidnapping case in Connecticut in August 2024.

David Ripley, co-CEO of the American cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, stated that Europe is taking a more pragmatic approach to cryptocurrency regulation, and the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) provides clarity for market rules; in contrast, the regulatory environment in the United States is more confrontational.Ripley pointed out that the CLARITY Act is progressing slowly, and related work has been ongoing for many years. He believes that if the United States continues to delay advancing cryptocurrency regulatory legislation, it may cede its leadership in financial innovation to the European Union. Kraken obtained a MiCA license from the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) in June 2025, allowing it to operate in 30 member countries of the European Economic Area (EEA).

The Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Russia, Vladimir Chistyukhin, stated that the country's cryptocurrency industry may have the necessary conditions to operate legally by the end of the year, with relevant regulations progressing as planned. According to the International News Agency, Chistyukhin mentioned that significant and large-scale secondary regulatory rules are currently being formulated, and the "fine-tuning" of internal rules is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.This year, Russia has continued to advance cryptocurrency legislation. President Putin signed a law in August that establishes a regulatory framework for digital currencies and digital rights, but the use of Bitcoin for payments remains prohibited. The central bank has approved the public to trade Bitcoin on the country's cryptocurrency exchanges, and non-qualified investors can purchase Bitcoin and other assets worth 300,000 rubles (approximately $3,582) through a single intermediary, while qualified investors face no restrictions.Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, plans to launch Bitcoin and cryptocurrency wallets and digital asset custody services in December. The bank expects that the trading volume of its new cryptocurrency business could reach 40 trillion rubles (approximately $4.7 billion) in its first year. Since 2022, Russia has prohibited the use of digital assets as a means of payment or legal tender, but lawmakers have made exceptions for international payments, likely aimed at circumventing Western sanctions. After the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, the U.S. and Europe excluded Russia from the SWIFT system, and the Russian Finance Minister stated that the country's enterprises have been using Bitcoin to bypass related restrictions.

According to Bitcoin News monitoring, security researchers have found that versions 1.1 and 1.2 of FomoPeek distributed through the Apple App Store contain an iOS exploit framework that can escape the application sandbox, capable of extracting keychain data, wallet files, and mnemonic phrases. SlowMist has linked this application to multiple theft incidents and traced nearly $580,000 worth of stolen USDT flowing into a main address.Users who have installed either version should consider the keys accessible on their iPhone as compromised, generate new mnemonic phrases on a clean device, and immediately transfer their funds.

According to Bloomberg, South African digital asset companies have suspended transactions worth billions of rand due to regulatory adjustment plans.The proposed revision will incorporate cryptocurrencies into South Africa's foreign exchange control system and restrict their use in cross-border transactions.

A family in the northern French town of Vendin-le-Vieil was invaded and taken hostage by four masked men early Sunday morning. According to BFMTV, the suspects entered the house around 4 AM, binding the couple and their two children with tape, and held them for over three hours. The 40-year-old father, an IT expert in the local cryptocurrency industry, was taken to another room, beaten, and forced to give up access codes, resulting in approximately 40,000 euros (about 46,000 dollars) worth of cryptocurrency being transferred away.According to the Béthune prosecutor's office, the four suspects fled the scene by car and are still at large. The 12-year-old daughter was struck in the face with a car key during the incident, and the victims are in a state of shock; they have been sent for forensic examination and are receiving support from the victims' assistance association. The case has been filed under organized gang kidnapping and extortion and is being jointly investigated by the regional judicial police and the French Cybercrime Office.France is the country most severely affected by such "ransom attacks" globally. Records from the national prosecutor's office for organized crime show that over 70 kidnapping and illegal detention incidents related to cryptocurrency have occurred in the first eight months of 2026, with 88 people already prosecuted in earlier crackdowns this year. Previous similar cases often targeted wealthy individuals, including the father of a cryptocurrency millionaire, the wife of a co-founder of The Sandbox, and the CEO of Binance France, while the victim in this case is merely an ordinary IT professional. Chainalysis reported that global ransom attacks in 2026 resulted in approximately 30 million dollars in losses, while CertiK stated that losses over six months reached 124 million dollars, a 12-fold increase.

During the traditional market's weekend closure, the perpetual contract types of stocks in the exchange may have already priced in the market conditions. According to RootData, cryptocurrency concept stocks have generally surged significantly in pre-market trading:Strategy (MSTR) contract is currently priced at $162.81, up 5.78% from the last trading day's official closing price of $153.92;Coinbase (COIN) contract is currently priced at $201.47, up 3.72% from the last trading day's official closing price of $194.25;Circle (CRCL) contract is currently priced at $95.06, up 3.57% from the last trading day's official closing price of $91.78;Robinhood (HOOD) contract is currently priced at $123.95, up 3.45% from the last trading day's official closing price of $119.82;AMD (AMD) contract is currently priced at $577.46, up 3.15% from the last trading day's official closing price of $559.82;Micron Technology (MU) contract is currently priced at $1,040.67, up 2.45% from the last trading day's official closing price of $1,015.80;Meta (META) contract is currently priced at $682.04, up 2.45% from the last trading day's official closing price of $665.75;Tesla (TSLA) contract is currently priced at $370.73, up 1.77% from the last trading day's official closing price of $364.27;SanDisk (SNDK) contract is currently priced at $1,821.27, up 1.64% from the last trading day's official closing price of $1,791.82;NVIDIA (NVDA) contract is currently priced at $224.96, up 1.21% from the last trading day's official closing price of $222.27;

The cryptocurrency wallet application SecondFi tweeted a reminder for users affected by the previous security incident regarding the risks of claiming NIGHT tokens. Some affected users will have a window to claim NIGHT tokens on September 22, but the Midnight Foundation's system only supports claims from the original wallet addresses and cannot switch to other unaffected addresses. The affected wallets have permanently existing security risks. SecondFi advises users not to attempt to claim NIGHT through compromised wallets, or the tokens will face the risk of being stolen.SecondFi also stated that the NIGHT claiming process is independently managed by the Midnight Foundation, and its wallet migration tool and asset recovery tool do not cover NIGHT claims. Affected users should contact the Midnight Foundation directly. Previously, SecondFi experienced a security incident from June 21 to 23, resulting in approximately 16.1 million ADA (about 2.6 million USD) being stolen, involving 374 wallets.

Cryptocurrency analyst @AxelAdlerJr posted that after August 19, the number of bitcoins held by long-term holders has decreased for 5 consecutive weeks, but the pace of reduction in the last 30 days has significantly slowed from 105,900 BTC on August 30 to 21,700 BTC on September 20 (nearly five times slower).In addition, the amount of bitcoins held by long-term holders decreased by 47,800 BTC last week. LTH SOPR data shows that most of them were sold at a loss.

The North Korean hacker group WaterPlum disguises itself as a cryptocurrency, AI, and NFT company recruiter, deploying malware disguised as programming tasks or video conference repair files to software developers and IT professionals.The organization has infected at least 30,000 devices in over 100 countries and extracted funds or account credentials from more than 7,000 cryptocurrency wallets between December 2025 and July 2026, stealing at least $10.7 million.

The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies has returned to $2.8 trillion, briefly approaching $2.9 trillion. Bitcoin rose 5% to $81,914, the highest level since September 4, after briefly falling below $75,000 on September 16. The Hyperliquid token HYPE surged to a historic high of $94.48, with a weekly increase of 18%, and its market capitalization surpassed $20 billion.The Zcash token ZEC increased by 36% to a multi-year high of $1,590, with a market capitalization nearing $25 billion. NEAR rose from $2.33 on September 13 to $4.06, while AVAX increased by nearly 50% over the week; ETH and XRP rose 3% to $6. The total market capitalization of altcoins increased from $1.17 trillion at the beginning of the week to $1.23 trillion, before falling back to slightly below $1.2 trillion.

U.S. Republican Senator and Wyoming Federal Senator Cynthia Lummis stated: The Democrats had previously requested that any cryptocurrency project raising more than $25 million from the public provide audited financial statements, and this requirement has been written into the bill.Lummis noted that the Democrats voted against the transparency they had requested. Lummis has served as a Federal Senator from Wyoming since 2021, having previously served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2009 to 2017.

According to Bitcoin Magazine, Blue Macellari, the head of digital assets at asset management giant T. Rowe Price, stated in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine that Bitcoin has now become the central topic of discussion regarding currency devaluation. She pointed out that bond vigilantes are making a comeback, U.S. Treasury financing is shifting from foreign buyers to domestic buyers, and the debt situations in Japan and Italy are not comparable to the U.S. buyer base.Macellari has 20 years of experience in emerging market sovereign debt and distressed debt investment, and later was responsible for establishing T. Rowe Price's digital asset business. In the interview, she reviewed the evolution of internal discussions on digital assets within the institution, the considerations for launching actively managed multi-token ETFs, and discussed the trends of asset management tokenization and automation, as well as the liquidity fragmentation risks brought by 24/7 trading.Additionally, Macellari assessed whether the demand for stablecoins under the GENIUS Act represents a substantive change or is merely wishful thinking, and she believes that devaluation trading has indeed driven institutional allocation to Bitcoin. She also stated that volatility can serve as a portfolio tool, and there are significant generational differences in Bitcoin allocation.

Multicoin Capital founder and CIO Tushar Jain stated that the current sentiment in the cryptocurrency market is somewhat exuberant, and a pullback or consolidation cannot be ruled out.He advised investors to remain calm, avoid overtrading, and focus on holding high-quality assets, allowing investment logic to naturally play out rather than trying to precisely capture every short-term high and low.

According to the Financial Times, Saudi Arabia has withdrawn from the digital currency project led by Beijing, which is part of China's efforts to develop an alternative cross-border payment system to the US dollar.The mBridge platform has sparked controversy in the United States, with concerns that participants may use it to bypass traditional dollar-dominated payment systems like Swift. The platform is set to be commercially launched, utilizing blockchain technology to enable central banks to directly transact using their respective digital currencies, reducing foreign exchange transaction times and costs, and diminishing the role of the dollar as an intermediary currency.